I wrote this because I was bored. I forget what inspired me to do so. And now I am off to bed because it's almost 3am and I just got back from a party, so I am exhausted.

"Let's go, Mr. B!" the Little Sister said excitedly before she skipped off down the stairs.

Her Big Daddy followed her, his footsteps and whalesong echoing down the cramped stairway. He was hunched over to avoid hitting the low ceiling, but every once in a while he'd hit his head against it anyway. A Rapture civilian tried to squeeze past them, but found it impossible to get past with the Daddy taking up the entire width of the stairwell and ended up walking back down the way he came. Big Daddy seemed to be glaring at him, warning him to back off, but as long as the lights on his "eyes" were still yellow, he'd get away alive. The worst that could happen, he'd get shoved against the wall. He watched them both cautiously as they passed, the Little Sister seemingly unaware that he was even there and the Daddy continuing to glare at him with a silent warning.

"What should we do next, Mr. Bubbles?" she asked, smiling up at him.

If he could speak in anything other than mechanically-generated whalesong, he would probably urge her to seek out more "angels". It was getting late, and she needed to finish up what she was doing so he could get her back to the Hidey Hole in time for bed. When he obviously couldn't answer in English, she reinterpreted his "words" as she saw fit.

She looked over at a vending machine propped up against the wall and excitedly ran over to it. "Mr. B! Mr. B! I want a soda!" she shouted, excitedly hopping up and down.

Big Daddy didn't think it was a good idea to be giving her soda so soon before bed…she would be bouncing off the walls all night! But then again, he didn't have to get her to bed…he just had to pop her into the Hidey Hole and then it became someone else's problem. He shrugged and drudged over to the machine, lifting her up so she could see her choices.

"I want that one," Little Sister said, pointing to one of the selections in the machine.

He set her down on the ground and looked around. A man of about twenty turned the corner. When he saw the lights on Big Daddy's helmet suddenly switch to red, he turned around and started running the way he came. He wasn't fast enough unfortunately, and ended up getting punched in the face. His lights turning yellow again, the now docile Big Daddy started rooting through the unconscious man's pockets until he found what he was looking for and returned to the vending machine with a wallet at hand.

"That one!" she repeated, pointing to the selection she had made earlier while her Daddy put a dollar into the machine and hit the button. She scooped the soda up and held it up to him. "Open please?" she asked with a sweet tone. Once he'd opened the soda bottle, she took a sip of it and said, "I don't like grape. Can I have orange?" Sighing, Big Daddy put another dollar into the machine and pushed another button. He retrieved it, opened it, and placed it in her hands. "Did I say orange? I meant cherry." There was a loud thump that made two nearby ladies jump when Big Daddy's massive helmet hit the wall. He put another dollar into the machine and repeated the process. "Do they have chocolate milk instead?" his Little Sister asked after she took a sip of her drink.

Several dollars and unfinished drinks later, the Little Sister was leading her Daddy in circles around a diner, trying to find an angel that was in all likelihood up on the roof somewhere. After the third or fourth time circling it, she turned around and looked up at him. "I'm tired of walking around. Can we have a tea party?"

Big Daddy sighed and reluctantly nodded. The last thing he wanted was to say no and have her throw a temper tantrum in public. The other Daddies looked down on those who made their own Little Sisters cry. She took his hand and excitedly led him to a room where two young gents were having a conversation. They both looked at the Little Sister with a certain amount of disdain, but then quickly fled the scene when Big Daddy started making a low growling sound. He sat down on the floor next to a table and watched her running around and getting things, only getting up and helping if something was too high up for her to reach herself.

"Mr. Bubbles, you need to look your best for the tea party!" the Little Sister said before she climbed up on the table so she could reach him. She walked over to him and hung a pink, beaded necklace around his neck and topped it off with a large, yellow bonnet decorated with flowers on his head.

Yay, Big Daddy thought with a lack of enthusiasm. He looked at his reflection in a puddle on the floor and hoped the other Daddies didn't see him like that. It was embarrassing enough the other week when he returned with a faceplate full of makeup and sparkly pink nail polish on his gloves. It took him forever to get it off, too.

"Here's your tea, Mr. B!" she said excitedly, setting a cupful of tea in front of him. "Cookie?" she asked, holding out a plate with cookies on it. He accepted one and when she wasn't looking, hurled it somewhere behind him, pretending he'd eaten it already when she looked back at him. She gave him a distressed look when she looked back at him. "Aren't you going to drink your tea, Mr. B?" Big Daddy sighed and picked up the cup, clinking it against his helmet and dumping it down his front. His Little Sister seemed to be satisfied and went back to her cookie.

"Isn't this fun, Mr. Bubbles?" his Little Sister asked with a smile. Big Daddy nodded stiffly, the tea still dripping off his helmet and puddling in his lap. He just hoped she'd finish so he could finish up their rounds and get her to bed in time.

Big Daddy was a mess. He was still wearing the hat and necklace and was covered in the tea and crumbled cookies that she'd forced him to ingest. He also felt a little sticky after she'd accidentally spilled one of her sodas earlier and then gave his leg a firm hug, transferring it onto him. It was already half an hour past her bedtime, and he was getting antsy to get her back so she could go to bed. Still, the little girl hopped around him cheerfully, unwilling to go to sleep.

She ran to a wall at the sight of a height chart. "Mr. Bubbles! Mr. B! Measure me!" she said excitedly, standing up against the wall.

If a whale could sigh, the sound that Big Daddy made just now sounded awfully close to what it sounded like. She made him measure her once a week, seemingly thinking it was possible for her to sprout up overnight. Still, he found it hard to say no and grabbed a nearby marker off a table. He noticed the mark from last time was at the same exact height she was now and made the new one slightly higher to make her think she'd actually grown. When she turned around and saw it, she started jumping up and down excitedly. "I grew, Mr. Bubbles! Lookit!" she shouted excitedly, pointing out the mark he'd just made. He just silently nodded.

Okay, now go to bed, his whalesong would have translated to.

She took the marker from his hand and attempted to push him against the wall. "Now let's measure you!" she said enthusiastically.

Big Daddy stood up against the wall. She also made him let her measure him every night as well, even though he obviously wasn't growing much either. Still, he dutifully obeyed and lifted her up onto his shoulder so she could reach the mark.

"Wow, Mr. B. You're really tall!" she observed before making a mark right next to the last one. "You didn't grow any! Were you eating your broccoli?" she asked accusingly.

I'm probably still wearing that one too, he thought, alluding to the time she'd played house and made him broccoli, forcing him to actually "eat" it, much like she'd done at the tea party. He helped her down and pointed to a nearby Hidey Hole. Bed, you little rugrat!

"I'm not tired yet. Let's play hide and seek!" she said before running off.

Big Daddy grumbled before following her. She wouldn't have gone far. She'd never go far from him, for it wasn't safe to. In fact, she'd hidden herself in the next room over. He could see her feet sticking out from underneath the curtains and hear her giggling.

Now he could have made this game quick and found her right away and sent her off to bed then and there…but where would the fun be in that? Pretending he had no idea where she was, he looked around in places that were too small for her to hide, or too out in the open to hide anything. He could hear her giggling everytime he looked in a cookie jar or under a table. The housewife whose home they were invading however looked on with displeasure and waited impatiently for them to finish and move on. Eventually he moved on to the curtains and pulled them back.

"You found me!" she screeched excitedly. "Your turn to hide!" She turned around and started counting, mispronouncing the number 7 as "sevlin" and stumbling on what number came after four. When she turned around, Big Daddy had placed a throw blanket over his head and stood fairly noticeably in the center of the room. "Mr. Bubbles!" she laughed before latching onto his leg like a headcrab with no sense of direction.

He returned the woman's throw blanket (or rather tossed it at her) and carried his Little Sister outside to the Hidey Hole. "Aww," she said with disappointment when she saw it approaching. "I don't want to go home yet! I'm not tired!" A few seconds later she yawned and leaned her head against his body, all the while trying and failing to hide the fact that she was exhausted. "Do I have to?" He nodded. "Can't you come with me?"

Big Daddy placed her inside the hole. She stood back and laughed when he pretended to make an attempt to follow her into the hole, the wall making a loud clank when he hit his helmet against the hole's rim. He stood back and shrugged as if he were stumped as to why he could not fit.

"It's okay, Mr. Bubbles. You tried," she replied. She leaned out the hole and planted a kiss on the front of his helmet. "Night, night, Mr. B," she yawned again before turning around and crawling back in to where the other Sisters were waiting for her, some of them asleep, some of them wide awake, and some of them pretending they weren't tired like she was, even though they were half asleep themselves.

He waited for her to disappear into the dark hole before turning around and drudging off. He felt a sense of relief and pride that he'd gotten her back, albeit a bit later than usual. He sat down in a lounge, a popular resting spot for Big Daddies when they didn't have a Little Sister to protect at the moment, and realized he was still a mess. He reached up to take off the hat when he heard heavy footsteps approaching from his right and looked over. Another Daddy stood in the doorway. He was covered from head to toe in purple glitter glue and syrup, sticky fingerprints covering his body. A waffle was plastered firmly to the side of his face.

They both stared at each other silently. They didn't really need to say anything. Their silence almost seemed to translate to "You too, huh?"